The University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business announced its new dean, Laura Dunham, Tuesday in a statement posted on OneStThomas by Executive Vice President and Provost Eddy Rojas.
Dunham, who is the current associate dean of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship, will officially take over for current dean Stefanie Lenway on July 1. St. Thomas has now filled multiple dean positions that were open this semester, including William Tolman for the College of Arts and Sciences and Buffy Smith for Dougherty Family College.
“A talented teacher, active researcher, sought-after consultant and mission-driven leader,” Rojas wrote, “Dr. Dunham is poised to build on Opus’ legacy of preparing highly principled, global business leaders committed to advancing the common good.”
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and journalism from Miami University, Dunham earned her Master of Business Administration from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia before finishing up her schooling with a doctorate in entrepreneurship and ethics from the same institution.
Dunham, who will begin her 20th year at the university next fall, started as an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at St. Thomas in 2003 but quickly became Opus faculty vice-chair, chair and department chair thereafter.
Rojas highlighted multiple initiatives that Dunham has taken as dean of the entrepreneurship program, marking that Dunham helped lead the Opus College of Business in “ground-breaking programs” that have created “national followings.”
“Under her leadership, the Schulze School experienced a nearly threefold increase in the percentage of incoming first-year students declaring an entrepreneurship major, tripled the number of credit hours taught within the Entrepreneurship department and tripled the number of students participating in the school’s co-curricular programs,” Rojas wrote.
Beyond this, Dunham has played a large part in entrepreneurship becoming the fifth largest major at St. Thomas. She also helped launch or grow the Schulze Innovation Scholarship, e-Fest and the Fowler Business Competitions, which collectively award over $400,000 in scholarship and seed capital each year.
In her tenure as dean of the entrepreneurship school, the program went from unranked to No. 23 in the nation, according to the Princeton Review. She also boosted the school to the nation’s top Catholic undergraduate entrepreneurship and Minnesota’s No. 1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program.
Dunham has also advanced equity and inclusion on campus, building partnerships between the Schulze School of entrepreneurship and companies in the community to combat racism and expand opportunities to business leaders of color. A few of these companies include: the Black Chamber of Minnesota, Black Entrepreneur Spaces, African Development Center, the Neighborhood Development Center and the Latino Economic Development Center.
Dunham’s predecessor, Lenway, served as dean since 2014 and will continue at St. Thomas as a faculty fellow for external outreach and business development on the Business in a Digital World Initiative team.
In his statement, Rojas extended his thanks to Lenway for her leadership and innovation.
“(Lenway) led a strategic focus to principled leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation in the business of health care,” Rojas wrote. “Through a transformative redesign of our MBA programs, she’s opened new doors for the college and its students.”
Cam Kauffman can be reached at kauf8536@stthomas.edu.